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He probably mean that its better to use the term "trap" than transvesti in anime/manga/LV.

Tranvesti could be any guy that crosses dresses as a girl, mostly very creepy. On the other hand, traps are bishounen ( pretty looking boys) that are mistaken to be females even when they're in their male clothing.....

He probably mean that its better to use the term "trap" than transvesti in anime/manga/LV.

Tranvesti could be any guy that crosses dresses as a girl, mostly very creepy. On the other hand, traps are bishounen ( pretty looking boys) that are mistaken to be females even when they're in their male clothing.....

Thank you for that, Genji. I hope thats what he means, but I dont know why he acted like that.

I had always thought that transvestite is a person who really wants to be the other gender, and "trap" was a slur against people like that. I didnt know it was a good word here.

Without prior knowledge I assumed that Amane was a girl so yes I fell for it. That still doesn't mean that traps have to be moe.

Depends on your own ability to distinguish if a character is male of female then (edit: it does not help that much that Amane is voiced by Akira Ishida, but i am not sure if you have heard his voice in the first place)

Let's make it more extreme than Amane.

This is IMO definitely not a trap, but a crossdresser or whatever you may call him

Nobody has raised Renji from EF or Haruka from Yosuga no Sora as examples of moe male characters yet? Come on people, a boy doesn't need to be a trap to be moe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Kotoura, in contrast, is drawn in the cute style with a wide face much like Hiro in Hidamari Sketch or Madoka in Madoka Magica. For reasons the story makes clear from the outset, she has been an outcast for much of her life. Those experiences helped her develop a strong personality, but she also elicits strong feelings of protectiveness in both the other characters and in the audience as well. This show is derived from a 4-koma comic strip that looks to be part of a shounen manga and thus intended for a male audience.

Much as I myself proclam Kotoura this season's most moe character, and much as I agree that the art style and intense injustices visited upon her are the reason she's so damn moe... I have to object to boiling moe down to a feeling of protectiveness. The intense feelings I get towards certain characters like Kotoura that I'd describe as moe aren't primarily protective in nature, and I'd be kind of surprised if I was alone in this. Nor do I want to shower her with my love or anything like that (as I do for a few shy characters like Kotomi from Clannad. Yes, I'm a hopeless romantic nerd, so be it.). Rather, what I feel towards Kotoura is an intense adoration - kind of like a sudden warmth hits and my brain shuts down a little from giddiness - and desire to root for her as an underdog character.

Then there's characters like OreImo's Kuroneko, Otome Youkai Zakuro's Zakuro, and Sola's Matsuri where their sad experiences play little part in why I love the characters so much. I call them moe because their cuteness and charms bewitch me such that I feel compelled to worship them as goddesses with puppy eyed adoration. Again, it's a feeling of warmth and like I'm too giddy to think quite as well as usual. That, to me, is the feeling of moe.

(So, an intense adoration manifest in a feeling of warmth and slight giddiness? Works for me, and I think it's probably what my girlfriend feels too based on how she acts when she takes a "moe hit". I'm guessing this definition won't satisfy some, though.)

Much as I myself proclam Kotoura this season's most moe character, and much as I agree that the art style and intense injustices visited upon her are the reason she's so damn moe... I have to object to boiling moe down to a feeling of protectiveness.

I wasn't saying moe is only that. I was contrasting Kotoura with Chihaya who does not elicit those feelings at all and whose character model is more classically beautiful than cute. Even if Chihaya had the same character model as Kotoura, her personality would militate against her being considered moe. On the other hand, putting Kotoura's personality into Chihaya's body would, I think, undermine any moe-ness that Kotoura's character might otherwise elicit.

Even characteristics like height matter, I think. Most female characters that I would classify as moe tend to be on the short side, like Hidamari's Hiro. When put alongside a tallish male companion, it adds an imouto-like aspect to their relationship that often plays out in ways that I would consider demeaning to the girl, like the pats on the head we often see in scenes like those. It makes the girl seem more like a puppy than an equal to the male. The sexism inherent in such portrayals is hard to miss.

I wasn't saying moe is only that. I was contrasting Kotoura with Chihaya who does not elicit those feelings at all and whose character model is more classically beautiful than cute. Even if Chihaya had the same character model as Kotoura, her personality would militate against her being considered moe. On the other hand, putting Kotoura's personality into Chihaya's body would, I think, undermine any moe-ness that Kotoura's character might otherwise elicit.

Ah. Well, I don’t disagree with the general thrust of the comparison. Experiences tells me I’d probably dispute some of the nuances but I’m not familiar enough with Chihayafuru to do so. That said, this is a “what is moe” thread and I want to make sure that a good range of viewpoints get aired – and I’ve seen moe get boiled down to the “protective feeling” doctrine a few too many times for my liking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Even characteristics like height matter, I think. Most female characters that I would classify as moe tend to be on the short side, like Hidamari's Hiro. When put alongside a tallish male companion, it adds an imouto-like aspect to their relationship that often plays out in ways that I would consider demeaning to the girl, like the pats on the head we often see in scenes like those. It makes the girl seem more like a puppy than an equal to the male. The sexism inherent in such portrayals is hard to miss.

I wouldn’t make much of a pat on the head without other information to contextualize it. I have a short girlfriend and pet her on the head sometimes, either to tease or because the cuteness compels me (yes, the two reasons people tend to do it in anime…). I don’t think it means I treat her as inferior.

I'm getting the impression we also see these couples differently in general, I actually had to think about what you meant by "imouto-like aspect" for quite a while to see it and I'm still not sure I got it right. Or maybe we're not even thinking of the same couples.